In his book Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond, Ekow Eshun's personal journey involves his search for a place for himself or the attainment of a clear self-definition. England, Eshun's native land, has failed to provide the writer with this sense of self so he went to Accra, Ghana, the home of his parents, to find what he was missing amongst his extended family of cousins, aunts and uncles. Did he find what he was looking for? Is what he was looking for what he thought it was going to be? Well, you have to read the book. He found many things in this journey. A former editor of Arena a British men’s magazine, Eshun definitely knows how to tell a story.

Critically acclaimed National Book Award Finalist and Haitian born author Edwidge Danticat tackles one of the touchiest subjects in America, nay the world, in this memoir: death. Not just death but the preventable circumstances surrounding the passing of her uncle who was detained when entering the United States from Haiti. The detainment included withheld medical assistance. How Danticat was affected, what her uncle meant to her while raising her as a child in Haiti after her parents departed for America, what this peculiar circumstance means to Americans and Haitians-all of that-is in this introspective work.

A deliciously unassuming, quietly-paced novel set in present day Wyoming that centers on a small town, cowboys, Native Americans, Blacks, Whites, racism, homophobia, murder and redemption. I love the characters with their honest yet confused social interactions and the languid pace of the work itself. Relish this book and be as absorbed as I was. When you get to the end, tell me what you think. One last thing, we need more uncles like the main characters.

"To know a man is to walk a mile in his shoes" is the quote. Not that Rampersad has walked a mile in Ellison’s shoes but the extent of his research, and masterful use of quotes and settings, will make you, the reader, feel as though you have. Ellison was as tortured as any African-American Negro growing up in a country where you were delineated to second or third class citizenship despite the magnitude of your talent. Take the journey through this amazing biography and you will see the life behind the limelight of the human being who brought us the phenomenal work The Invisible Man.

The Message: 100 life lessons from hip-hops greatest songs speaks to that part of us that is always  unsure of who we are or what we believe. It is not the voice of your parents. It is more like the musings of your older sister who is cool and listens to hip-hop. This older sister (see Felicia Pride) listened to hip-hop ever since she was young and, in that, realized that some of these hip-hop cats knew what they were talking about, whether it was way back when or just last year. From “Express yourself” by NWA to “Spaceship” by Kanye West, Felicia Pride details her lessons learned from the lyrics of hip hop wordsmiths in six main sections. Do not be surprised if you find yourself somewhere in there agreeing with her. You probably thought the same thing when you heard these songs too.

The challenge for this installment of the Short List is to make a list of noteworthy women writers of color based on style, storytelling, and social political commentary. When it came time to write about these authors, well, it was just like everything else worth doing, difficult to pin down to a short list of a few authors, in a few words and a few works. Kara Walker, Zora Neal Hurston, Stacey Patton, Edwidge Danticat, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, and Jhumpa Lahiri are a few names you should know when considering works that illustrate the diversity of our experiences in relation to each other on this planet. continue